What Others Are Saying

The Institute is proud to be recognized as a leader in international graduate education by a variety of external organizations, from the United Nations to Foreign Policy magazine.

Here are just a few examples of what others are saying about the Institute and our programs:

Two MBA students and a recent alumna from the Middlebury Institute took first place in a 24-team international MBA case-study competition sponsored by The Economist magazine in February 2015. Whitney Hales MBA/MAIEP '14, Nuan He MBA '15, and Meagan Braun MBA/MAIEP '15 collected a prize of $10,000 for their winning entry, beating out rival teams from MIT Sloan, the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, INSEAD, and others.

The Institute was once again named one of the "Top Master's Programs for a Policy Career in International Relations" by Foreign Policy magazine in its Jan/Feb 2015 issue.

The Institute’s unique Fisher MBA program is consistently highly ranked in Net Impact’s annual Business as UNusual guide, “the social & environmental impact guide to graduate programs,” which surveys more than 3,000 students across nearly 100 campuses to gain their perspectives on trends and programs. This year, the Fisher MBA at MIIS was ranked in a tie for 23rd among the top 50 social impact programs, and in a tie for 27th among the top 50 environmental sustainability programs.

A trio of students in the Institute’s Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MATESOL) program earned raves from the International Student & Scholars Office at the University of California, San Francisco for their work developing a proposed curriculum and lesson plans for English as a Second Language (ESL) students at UCSF. “This far exceeds my expectations and also is an extraordinary tool for outreach on our ESL needs,” said Director Brian Groves of the work done by MIIS students Daurie Mangan-Dimuzio, Anita Krishnan, and Matt Loehrer.

Institute students placed individually in first, third and fifth place in the May 2014 Televic Simultaneous Interpreting Competition in Newcastle, England. Suwen Feng (MATI ’14) placed first in the competition, Yanbo Wang (MATI ’14) third and their classmate Jennifer Zhang (MATI ’14) also made it to the final round to ultimately place fifth. The MIIS team mentored by Professor Wallace Chen brought home first prize for the second year in a row.

Professor Jeffrey Langholz and student Maeve Murphy of the Institute won the Innovator the Year Award—and $50,000 in seed capital—at the Monterey Bay Startup Challenge competition on May 3, 2014. Their idea, called Water City, helps make water conservation easy and profitable for the public. Freshwater issues are a passion for Maeve, who says “This is why I came to MIIS.”

In April 2014, the Aspen Institute awarded MBA students Mary Vargo (MBA ’14), Danielle Razo (MBA ’14), Morgan Rogge (MBA/MAIEP ’15) and Jamie Shirreff (MBA/MAIEP ’14) a top-10 Honorable Mention finish in its 2014 Business & Society International MBA Case Competition. The MIIS team won honorable mention alongside teams from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management, and the London Business School at the University of London.

A team of Institute students made their mark at the Hult Prize regional competition in San Francisco in March 2014, beating hundreds of competitors to win a place in the regional competition, then being selected as one of four teams (out of 47) to advance to the final round of regionals. “It was an energizing experience for us. MIIS coursework and programs like the Frontier Market Scouts (FMS) and the Design, Partnering, Management and Innovation (DPMI) program opened our minds and pushed our thinking to the level required to tackle today’s most complex problems,” said Amy Ross (MPA ’14). The Hult Prize competition is a collaboration with the Clinton Global Initiative.

The Clinton Global Initiative selected Institute student Wesley Laine (MAIPS ’14) to present his sustainable clean water project in Haiti as a positive example of aid that works. Wesley was a featured presenter at the organization’s star-studded annual meeting in October 2013. In March 2014, Wesley learned he would receive $10,000 in funding for his Cholera prevention project in Haiti through the prestigious Kathryn Davis Foundation Projects for Peace fellowship. “I am really grateful to MIIS and the Kathryn Davis Foundation for believing in my project -- Cholera Prevention: Service, Solidarity, and Peace,” says Wesley.

Chung-kuan (John) Chen (MACI ’14) won first prize at the 2013 Televic Chinese-English Simultaneous Interpreting Competition held at Newcastle University in England in September. The competition, the first of its kind, featured a series of keynote speeches in a simulated conference with English and Mandarin Chinese as the working languages. A total of 21 contestants from nine Translation & Interpretation programs in the U.K., Taiwan, and the U.S. participated in the competition.

Institute alumnus Aaron Stein (MAIPS ’10) was named one of the “2013 Top 99 Foreign Policy Leaders Under 33” by Diplomatic Courier magazine and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy. Stein is a research associate at the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies in Istanbul, where he works on security and proliferation issues in the Middle East. The list appeared in the September/October 2013 issue of Diplomatic Courier.

The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance awarded MIIS student Lovely Umayam (MANPTS '13) the first prize of $5,000 in its Innovation in Arms Control Challengeon March 4, 2013. Members of the public were invited to submit innovative approaches to using commonly available technologies to support arms control policy efforts; Lovely, a student in the Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program, developed "Bombshelltoe" (www.bombshelltoe.com), an online education platform that examines the intersection of popular culture and nuclear issues.

The Institute’s unique Frontier Market Scouts® program won the Ashoka U - Cordes Innovation Award, given to innovative university programs focused on promoting social entrepreneurship. The award, one of six given by Ashoka U after a review of 130 nominations, was presented before 650 attendees of the annual Ashoka U Exchange conference at the University of San Diego on February 23, 2013. In partnership with the Cordes Foundation, Ashoka U recognizes globally relevant teaching, learning, and partnership practices, focusing on practices that may be adapted and replicated. The Frontier Market Scouts program was also a finalist in the MBA Roundtable’s 2012 Innovator Awards.

In a January 18, 2013 speech to the Institute's students, faculty, staff and invited guests, United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon noted the role played by the Institute and its James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in promoting nonproliferation education: “The world needs you skills and commitment, especially in advancing disarmament and nonproliferation," he said, encouraging the students in the room to take up what he called "great causes.” Underscoring the significance of nonproliferation education, Ban specifically cited the Institute’s “innovative teaching methods,” which rely heavily on simulations and role-playing.

The Spring 2012 issue of The Carnegie Reporter, a publication of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, features several students of the Institute’s Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies program in its spring publication. The article is titled “Next Gen Nonproliferation” and says that of the next generation of nonproliferation specialists, "many of the most promising and best prepared are students at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), part of the Monterey Institute of International Studies."

In October 27, 2011 remarks at Stanford University, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Rose Gottemoeller explained how Institute student Tamara Patton (MANPTS'12) had taken open-source satellite images of Pakistan's Khushab Plutonium Production Complex and used freely available Google software tools and basic trigonometry to construct a three-dimensional model of the facility. Secretary Gottemoeller's mention of Patton's ground-breaking work was chronicled in a front-page story in the December 6, 2011 edition of the Monterey County Herald titled "MIIS student transforms nuclear intelligence."

At its October 2011 annual conference, the American Translators Association (ATA) awarded its highest honor to Professor Holly Mikkelson of the Institute. The Alexander Gode Medal, the ATA's most prestigious award, was presented to Professor Mikkelson at the annual meeting of membership with approximately 1,000 translation and interpretation professionals in attendance.

The Fisher International MBA Program was again recognized by the Aspen Institute as one of the world’s Top 100 MBA programs integrating social and environmental stewardship, coming in at number 33 in the 2011-2012 edition of the Aspen Institute’s biennial Beyond Grey Pinstripes survey. Since 2003, the Fisher program has consistently been ranked by the Aspen Institute as one of the world’s leading socially responsible MBA programs.

Professor Jan Knippers Black of the Institute was elected to the Amnesty International USA Board of Directors in July 2011.

In October 2010, The Austrian Foreign Ministry selected the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) as its partner in the establishment of the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation. In a public announcement, the Austrian government said that it selected CNS from a large number of candidates to manage and operate the new center “because of its distinguished record of leadership in the field and its shared vision” for the new center.

In December 2009, the Institute received numerous congratulatory messages in recognition of the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Quotes from two of the letters follow:

“In just two decades, the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies has acquired a global reputation for training the next generation of nonproliferation specialists… The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has benefited from the expertise of CNS graduates who have served as interns, and several of its former staff and students are now serving in professional staff positions at the IAEA.” -- International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei

“Each new generation of scholars and policymakers must determine how best to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and seek the goal of a world without them. Organizations like CNS that are dedicated to training nonproliferation specialists will be vital in achieving this goal and preparing these individuals to lead in the effort.” – U.S. President Barack Obama

In November 2009, the United Nations recognized the Institute as one of the world’s leading trainers of professional translators and interpreters, signing an agreement to expand internship and employment opportunities for current and future Institute students and graduates. The Institute is one of nine partner institutions worldwide chosen by the U.N, and the only one in North or South America.